Classic (obscure?) TV shows you remember

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#3456172 26-Jan-2026 17:26

ANglEAUT:

Beyond 2000

I still have quite a few episodes of Beyond 2000 on VHS. A lot of my school work used facts I'd learnt from that show.

It was never really the same after the 'rebrand', i.e. the new theme and graphics. I think they lost some of their better reporters around that time too. I don't know if its predecessor Towards 2000 was shown here or not. I'd be too young to remember. I caught one episode of the later Beyond Tomorrow when I was in Australia and thought it was awful, so if it was shown here, I didn't bother watching it.

I used to be able to name all my favourite presenters. Now I mostly just recognise the names, but I did particularly like Simon Reeve, who went on to host news and game shows, Dr John D'Arcy who used to pop up from time to time when medical things were being discussed, and Iain Finlay, who died last year.

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#3456175 26-Jan-2026 17:38

Green Acres from the 1960s.

Rewatched it recently - Still very funny.

Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor (not Zsa Zsa as some people will tell you).

It existed in the same universe as "The Bevery Hillbillies" and "Petticoat Junction" but much more Meta and often broke the fourth wall.

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farcus

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#3456186 26-Jan-2026 18:13

qwertee:

Dallas

Twin Peaks

North and South

Charlies Angels

Black Adder

Faulty Towers

Only fools and horses .

Porridge

The two Ronnies

Sorry Ronnie Corbet

above come to mind , pardon if they are in a different era.

some good and some not so good shows in there . . . but not sure I'd consider any of them obscure.

Another classic show I still watch on repeat from time to time (but maybe also not obscure) is Survivors from 1975

axxaa

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#3456246 26-Jan-2026 21:35

Michael Bentine’s Potty Time - Absolutely bonkers

tweake

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#3456248 26-Jan-2026 21:44

i forgot about Dempsey And Makepeace

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#3456257 26-Jan-2026 22:52

B.J and the Bear

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#3456270 27-Jan-2026 08:04

If we are talking about truly obscure early 80s Kiwiana it’s hard to go past It is I, Count Homoginized.

Fun fact, Russell Smith, who played the titular count is the brother of All Black and legendary coach Wayne Smith.

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#3456271 27-Jan-2026 08:28

While looking for the Count mentioned above I found this website, which might prove worth when looking for obscure Kiwi TV shows: Kiwitv.org.nz TV Shows

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#3456273 27-Jan-2026 08:45

Steel Riders - part of the classic 70s/80s kids drama era (see also Boy From Andromeda (which I don't actually remember), Children of the Dog Star, Under the Mountain, etc). Funny story - I found the novelisation of Steel Riders many years ago and added it to my collection. I'm currently reading it to my two daughters (11 and 8) as part of our bedtime routine, and then watching the episodes on NZ On Screen. Then during the holidays they went to the Toy Museum in Shannon with their aunty, and impressed the socks off the guy there with their knowledge of a classic 80s kid drama.

Fallout - this is pretty obscure, from 1994. Written by Tom Scott and Greg McGee, it's a dramatisation of the election of the fourth Labour Government, with an emphasis on the immediate "fallout" of the Nuclear Free Policy. It's a fascinating (if not dated, corny by today's standards) portrayal of a significant episode in modern political history. I managed to tape part 2 when it was shown back in the late 90s, but didn't realise it was part 2 until many years later. My efforts to procure a copy of part 1 have been unsuccessful, but I was able to view a copy held by the Sound and Vision archives in Wellington.

Some other gems from the simpler times of the 80s and early 90s, not already mentioned:

- Face the Music, hosted by Simon Barnett

- Krypton Factor, NZ version of the UK gameshow, hosted by Dougal Stevenson

- Top Town, back when towns used to spend their summers forming teams to compete in wacky challenges for little else than town pride and it was filmed and broadcast to the nation.

- Telethon, back when TV used to stop broadcasting around 11pm and it was a special occasion for it to keep on broadcasting through the night, and kids were allowed to stay up all night and watch celebrities humiliate themselves in the interests of fundraising. Side note - I was telling my kids about Goodnight Kiwi, and they struggled to grasp the concept of TV broadcasts stopping at night (as natives of the streaming era, they struggle to understand the concept of broadcast TV altogether) and why it couldn't just keep on going. The idea that TV was a "manual" thing that needed people to run was a very foreign concept.

ANglEAUT

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#3456379 27-Jan-2026 11:50

Dinosaurs Wikipedia / IMDB

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#3456381 27-Jan-2026 11:59

freitasm:

While looking for the Count mentioned above I found this website, which might prove worth when looking for obscure Kiwi TV shows: Kiwitv.org.nz TV Shows

Wow. That is a BIG list!

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#3456384 27-Jan-2026 12:13

My old English teacher from Waimea College was Mr Dan (Daniel) Dungan. He was a pretty decent bloke and I quote liked him as a teacher. In the late 80's he showed our class a clip of him playing a small role ('man in small sailing boat') in a NZ kids TV series that I think was from earlier in the 1980's. I've looked a couple of times but could never find it.

Just throwing this out there in case someone happens to know and can point me in the right direction.

Separately, around 2008 I was fortunate to assist (in a professional capacity) a local TV production company names ScreenWorks. The leadership team there were top blokes in my experience working with them over several years. I think Street Legal was their most commercial successful series. They shut up shop during lean economic times when none of the bigger TV companies (TV3, TVNZ, etc) would commit to funding new locally produced TV series. https://screenworks.co.nz/

Some of the team had worked on the original series of Under The Mountain and were kind enough to loan me a copy of some VHS tapes so I could re-watch it.

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#3456394 27-Jan-2026 13:04

quickymart:

In amongst all the negativity at the moment, I thought I'd make a thread about something positive. I'm a big nostalgia buff having grown up in the 80s.

Living in a tiny South Island town, TV was the best entertainment around, and my sister and cousin and I would race home every day to watch the kids shows after school (long live Olly Ohlson!)

One show I haven't heard much about for a long time is Terrahawks:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrahawks

This was a show from the same crowd that made Thunderbirds - which is much better known. However, I loved Terrahawks more; my favourite characters were Stew Dapples (the bloke in the recording studio) and his boss, who started almost every sentence with "What's happening, Stew?" in his slow, Jack Nicholson-type voice.

Does anyone remember this show, or just me? What are some obscure TV shows you remember seeing, and that could still have entertainment value today? 🙂

I remember Terrorhawks fondly.

It had some feeling "grown up" concepts for a kids show if I remember correctly. Dr Ninestein was the leader and had 8 clones. In one episode he dies, so they recruited one of his clones (who had a completely different personality and life of his own) and just upload the original's memories and personality into him - presumably overwriting the clone's original persona.

At least that's how I remember it 40ish years later.

Groucho

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#3456396 27-Jan-2026 13:12

Handle9:

If we are talking about truly obscure early 80s Kiwiana it’s hard to go past It is I, Count Homoginized.

Fun fact, Russell Smith, who played the titular count is the brother of All Black and legendary coach Wayne Smith.

"It is I, Count Homogenised!"

My pick was Shark in the Park. I still have the theme tune running through my head every time I drive through the Mt Victoria tunnel. Another series featuring Russell Smith who played a very different role to Count Homogenised and "Russell" on Play School.

MurrayM

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#3456411 27-Jan-2026 14:58

A few I remember enjoying that I don't think have been mentioned yet:

Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (I also have the book of the series)
Connections (with James Burke)
Thunderbirds
Stingray
The Flintstones
Top Cat (fun fact: In the UK it was renamed Boss Cat because there was a cat food called Top Cat)
Samurai Pizza Cats
Father Ted
Jeeves and Wooster
Batman (with Adam West)
Get Smart
The Monkeys
Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp
Crown Court
Junkyard Wars
Keeping Up Appearances

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